White House: Puerto Rico vote wasn't 'clear'

12/3/12 1:35 PM EST

The White House declined to fully endorse a push by Puerto Rico to become the 51st state, saying that the results of the November referendum were not "clear" and should be studied further by Congress.

Asked Monday by a reporter if President Obama would "help" the Puerto Ricans with their statehood bid, spokesman Jay Carney said: "I think the outcome was a little less clear than that because of the process itself."

Puerto Ricans voted by a 54 percent to 46 percent margin to end their current association as a self-governing U.S. commonwealth in November. In a separate follow-up question, 61 percent of Puerto Ricans choose statehood over full independence or semi-autonomy. But the Republican, pro-statehood governor Luis Fortuno also lost his reelection bid.

Carney said that the results showed that Puerto Ricans want a resolution to their current political status — and Congress should study the issue closely.

"The people of Puerto Rico have made it clear that they want a resolution to the issue of the island's political status," Carney told reporters.

"Congress should now study the results closely and provide the people of Puerto Rico with a clear path forward that lays out the means by which Puerto Ricans themselves can determine their own status," Carney said.

He added that the Obama administration was committed to the principle that only Puerto Rico could decide on their future.

"This administration, as you know, is committed to the principle that the question of political status is a matter of self-determination for the people of Puerto Rico," Carney

Any statehood petition, however, would need the approval of Congress. Congress has not considered a statehood petition in more than half a century, since Hawaii and Alaska were added as states in 1959.